In the Shadow of #MeToo, Designers Find New Ways to Get Political at Fashion Week

Since the 2016 election, every season of New York Fashion Week has been defined by a political message. During the fall 2017 shows, just weeks after President Donald Trump's Inauguration, the fashion community pinned pink Planned Parenthood buttons to their lapels, sat organizers of the Women's March in the front row, and sent protest T-shirts down the runway; for spring 2018 in September, the Council of Fashion Designers of America launched an initiative in support of the ACLU.

This week the industry comes together to preview fall 2018—this time, against the backdrop of a worldwide reckoning centered around sexual harassment and abuse. It's an issue that's touched the fashion industry in the last few months publicly, and for years privately. In terms of the former, Mario Testino and Bruce Weber, two of the biggest photographers in the world, were accused of various forms of sexual abuse in a New York Times story; Terry Richardson, who has long faced sexual abuse allegations, once again made headlines; models including Kate Upton and Amber Valletta have spoken out about alleged sexual misconduct they’ve faced in their careers.

Harvey Weinstein, who set the #MeToo movement in motion when news broke of his decades-long alleged abuse of women, also was connected to the fashion world: His estranged wife Georgina Chapman cofounded the label Marchesa, and he had a producer credit on Lifetime's Project Runway. (The New York Times exposé on Weinstein broke, coincidentally, during Marchesa’s bridal presentation last October.)

Given how, as a community, fashion has engaged with pressing cultural topics—from women's health to immigration—during the last two seasons, #MeToo feels like something that would be top of mind for designers, editors, and others working the shows.

In some ways it has: After being a Hollywood favorite for over a decade, Marchesa has quietly disappeared from the red carpet, as celebrities (and the fashion industry) have distanced themselves from the brand (despite Chapman announcing that she was leaving her husband and condemning his abuse months ago). Though it was originally on the NYFW schedule, Marchesa pulled out of presenting this season last week, with a spokesperson telling the New York Post that the new collection will debut in a “digital format.” (Marchesa hasn't responded to Glamour's request for comment.)

But what about the symbolic gestures—the tribute pins, the slogans, and other politically charged moments we've come to expect on the runway, in this postelection landscape? This season the response and reckoning is more personal.

Myriam Chalek, a French-born designer, wants to draw attention to the #MeToo movement by casting sexual abuse survivors as models in a one-off NYFW runway show. “If we can raise awareness about sexual misconduct, rape, and sexual harassment we are one step forward in resolving this issue that has been going on for centuries,” she tells Glamour. “So many victims of sexual misconduct have been silenced. We're turning their pain into power. There is one woman [walking the show] who suffered abuse at the hands of her family. This is the first time she has spoken out.” In the past Chalek has used fashion shows as an opportunity to bring awareness to different issues and marginalized communities through the casting, from folks with dwarfism to blind people.

Rebecca Minkoff is skipping a NYFW altogether this season (she’s about to give birth to baby number three) and instead unveiled her latest collection in a series of portraits featuring the organizers of the Women’s March, Zosia Mamet, and more—women who she sees as actively pushing forward in their fields. “If [customers] come away inspired to take the next step in their career or personal life, that’s really something that’s important to me,” she explains. “Nothing is more important than women’s equality and women’s rights."

Other designers are weaving in female empowerment and #MeToo into the theme of their collections. Michelle Smith of Milly says her fall 2018 collection “will speak about equality and inclusiveness…. Over the past few seasons, I’ve been really inspired by what is happening in the world, and have allowed my emotions to influence my collections and the brand’s creative direction.” Similarly Stacey Bendet, the creative director and CEO of Alice + Olivia, revealed she's pulling inspiration for her latest show from “the women’s movement past and present” and the roles that women have played at key historical moments.

Prabal Gurung, nicknamed The Most Woke Man in Fashion by The Washington Post, sees his role pushing the movement forward during fashion week as being a designer who champions inclusivity on the runway. “I think we have to be held accountable [today] for creating a runway in how we see the world,” he says. “Is [the runway] inclusive of race, gender, size, age? The whole idea of a 16-year-old model, white girl, tall, blond, size 0, is so archaic and one of the most excruciatingly boring ideas of beauty…. It’s important for us creative folks, including the media, to have these conversations and hold one another accountable [for our actions].”

Symbolic gestures on the runway are one thing—real change from within is another.

“Nearly 10 years ago I started speaking out about abuses in the fashion industry, and at the time I was either sidelined or ostracized for doing so,” Coco Rocha, supermodel and director of model agency Nomad Management, says. “I complained to the press, I complained to those in power, I complained to the public through my social media. I wasn't the only one who wanted change, other models stepped forward years ago and completely lost their careers as a result. I was lucky to hang on to mine, though at times by no more than a thread.”

Models, who are often underage or don’t have proper advocates, have long experienced harassment behind closed doors, with little recourse. It’s something that has been whispered about in industry circles for years, but by in large never actually dealt with. The tide has started to shift, according to James Scully, a top casting agent who has worked with brands including Carolina Herrera and Stella McCartney. Brands are finally prioritizing inclusive casting, he explains, while having open dialogues surrounding the fair treatment of models this fashion week, something made possible by the #MeToo movement.

"This would have taken ten years longer if it hadn’t been for Harvey Weinstein," he says.

Scully, along with global luxury groups Kering and LVMH, put together the “Charter on Working Relations With Fashion Models and Their Well-Being,” which debuted in September and prohibits both conglomerates from casting models under 16, women who are a size 0 and below, among a host of other requirements. The CFDA, meanwhile, is hoping to play a part in ending these abuses, having just updated its Health Initiative to define sexual harassment and to encourage anyone who feels they have been victimized to file a police report or to seek out help from advocacy group the Model Alliance; it has also partnered up with The Model Alliance to create private changing areas backstage at the shows, and will be posting signs to promote a safe work environment.

Still, many argue we haven't even scratched the surface of how the #MeToo movement touches the famously insular fashion industry.

“There are many people out there still, whether they’re hairdressers, stylists, other photographers, and there are some marquee old-school names that are part of this whole thing,” Scully says. “Models like Karlie Kloss and Karen Elson are now speaking out. When those kinds of people speak out and support something, that really opens the door.”

“To this day, even protected by a great team and a contract that explicitly states I won't shoot certain things like nude or with cigarettes, I still sometimes show up on set and the team is there expecting me to bend or break my own guidelines," Rocha notes. "At 28, I'm still dealing with a lot of the same pressures I had at 15 years old. There's so much I would like to see change.”

Some point to a lack of women leading fashion brands—an irony in a business that predominantly sells to women—as another part of the problem. “It’s quite sad that female designers are a minority in this industry,” says Milly’s Smith. “Barriers may have been created through the unfair assumptions that come with motherhood, and that women can’t ‘do it all.’ I think people on boards and in high-level positions need to give women a chance to take on these big design positions.” Bendet points to a continued lack of equal pay, including in the fashion world, as another pain point, just as it is in Hollywood: “Women should never be paid less than a man for the same job. This is a bit difficult to implement by law, but as a society, and as an industry we should be totally committed to it.”

Smith, though, is hopeful that real change is coming: “If we all work together as an industry, sexual harassment will become less of the norm, and we will effect change. As women, we need to keep fighting, keep taking risks, and we need to be extremely vocal in our quest for gender equality in the workplace. We have come so far and I know we can continue to make change.”